Is there any real truth to the rumor that UCO is going division 1 in football

[Pete]

BTW, I looked and Tulsa was rated #86 by US News in 2017, and has now plummeted to #195.

They must be in dire financial straights to cut so many degrees, which they knew would slash their ranking. And in turn, the lower your rating, the lower the number of applicants and the more students you have to induce with financial aid.


Oral Roberts would probably be a goner already had David Green not bailed them out with a $70 million takeover.

[fortpatches]

BTW, I looked and Tulsa was rated #86 by US News in 2017, and has now plummeted to #195.

They must be in dire financial straights to cut so many degrees, which they knew would slash their ranking. And in turn, the lower your rating, the lower the number of applicants and the more students you have to induce with financial aid.


Oral Roberts would probably be a goner already had David Green not bailed them out with a $70 million takeover.

I mean, when I went there the law school was ranked like #74ish. Now it is #120. Griffin hasn't been that great for the law school - He has caused some pretty big issues with some of the faculty. I think there are only a couple of faculty still there from when I graduated less than 10 years ago.
Levitt cut so many of the degrees when she was interim provost (she was the Law School dean when I attended). She did an excellent job raising the law school in the rankings while she was Dean. I'm not really sure what was going on when she cut all those degree programs. Most of those degrees only had 1-2 students enrolled though, from my understanding and some did not have any students enrolled.

[PaddyShack]

^

The way private schools work is they give a ton of aid to the best students.

But they pay the bills by lesser students paying full freight.

I went to Pepperdine and you could tell who was who right from the jump (I was a scholarship kid).

Pepperdine is one of the Church of Christ schools, right? I have a lot of coworkers that went to either OC or Harding in Arkansas. Were you associated with the Church of Christ at that time, Pete?

[Pete]

Pepperdine is one of the Church of Christ schools, right? I have a lot of coworkers that went to either OC or Harding in Arkansas. Were you associated with the Church of Christ at that time, Pete?

Yes, it is Church of Christ, and no I am in no way affiliated.

Undergrads are required to attend weekly non-denominational convocation and that's about the only noticeable religious influence.

[Midtowner]

An article in today's Oklahoman highlights that UCO is ineed investing in its football program. The new coach has three DII championships under his belt. They note that UCO is not the kind of school joining D2 these days and that they are considering FCS or possibily joining some other larger D2 schools and splitting from D2 to form a new tier.

[Zuplar]

There is an article in the Oklahoman about this. I can't remember what the rules are with links to them, but here it is:

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/spor...2cmFHXI52VBwHA

[scottk]

An article in today's Oklahoman highlights that UCO is ineed investing in its football program. The new coach has three DII championships under his belt. They note that UCO is not the kind of school joining D2 these days and that they are considering FCS or possibily joining some other larger D2 schools and splitting from D2 to form a new tier.

UCO would benefit from the "payday" that follows with FCS teams that get scheduled when playing mainline conferences on the road for football. They would also benefit from national exposure from time to time on ESPN+/ESPN3 games that would get picked up.

[Midtowner]

There are at least a couple of schools like Tarleton State and Texas A&M Kingsville which are in UCO's former conference which have gone to the FCS and done just fine.

[Teo9969]

It boggles the mind as to how OKCU could be having money troubles, but they are. But the above comment is correct. Lots of these schoolsÂ’ bottom lines depend on a certain level of enrollment and when you charge undergrads 35k+ for degrees which will be of similar or better quality at state schools, youÂ’re not going to find many takers.

OKCU is hard to justify the expense for with just about any of its programs, same for TU, except they are still better deals than your for-profit schools, but most of those are gone nowadays.

Which back to the point of this thread, kind of bodes well for a school like UCO which is conveniently located and can charge less than a third of what these other schools charge for similar or better quality programs.

But that said, UCOÂ’s enrollment is down about 3,000 from what it was when I was an undergrad there.

Any private school aligned with a mainline Christian denomination is going to be struggling unless it already had a top-tier endowment. Church attendance is WWAAYYY down so I'm sure funds flowing into the private universities from that source are all but dried up.

[Midtowner]

Any private school aligned with a mainline Christian denomination is going to be struggling unless it already had a top-tier endowment. Church attendance is WWAAYYY down so I'm sure funds flowing into the private universities from that source are all but dried up.

I'm guessing funds didn't flow from those sources to these schools, but rather back to the religious organization. Oral Roberts didn't start a university for his health, he wanted another massive revenue stream. Same with their attempt at a medical center.

[Martin]

Same with their attempt at a medical center.

of course, it didn't work out... he went around faith-healing all of his potential customers. put himself right out of business.

[Midtowner]

of course, it didn't work out... he went around faith-healing all of his potential customers. put himself right out of business.

Funny anecdote about Oral--my dad used to be general counsel for the Highway Department (nwo Dept of Transportation) and was a trial division attorney for them before that. He was attending the groundbreaking of highway in Tulsa back in the 70s. Oral was there and making the rounds in the crowd. My father was probably a bit overserved at that point. Oral had some pocket hand warmers in his pockets to make his hands hot and was warming his hands then shaking folks' hands. When he got around to my father, my dad pulled his hands away and exclaimed "Oh my God, you just cured my hemorrhoids!" Oral though it was hilarious and a good time was had.

[Martin]

Funny anecdote about Oral--my dad used to be general counsel for the Highway Department (nwo Dept of Transportation) and was a trial division attorney for them before that. He was attending the groundbreaking of highway in Tulsa back in the 70s. Oral was there and making the rounds in the crowd. My father was probably a bit overserved at that point. Oral had some pocket hand warmers in his pockets to make his hands hot and was warming his hands then shaking folks' hands. When he got around to my father, my dad pulled his hands away and exclaimed "Oh my God, you just cured my hemorrhoids!" Oral though it was hilarious and a good time was had.

ha... that is awesome. and pretty cool that oral was a good sport about it.

[AFCM]

I don’t know if any of you were there or know about the results, but UCO just thumped second-ranked Central Missouri last night. Whether they’re ready for FCS remains to be seen, but Coach Dorrel has the Bronchos playing at a high level so far this season.

[Midtowner]

I don’t know if any of you were there or know about the results, but UCO just thumped second-ranked Central Missouri last night. Whether they’re ready for FCS remains to be seen, but Coach Dorrel has the Bronchos playing at a high level so far this season.

We'll see. They've been good at home for awhile. They haven't won a road game in a very long time.

But yeah, they invested in Coach Dorrel, and the only reason he made any sense as a hire and the only reason he'd move to Edmond would be, IMHO, a chance to be the guy who elevates the program to D1 and make that transition with them.